Halfords

About us

Halfords is on a journey - building the future of motoring and cycling and looking for people who want to help shape what comes next. We’re a place for cocreators: people who want to make a real impact, take ownership and be part of something that’s still evolving.

Technology at Halfords is at a turning point. We’re modernising our foundations, sharpening our delivery, and ensuring every technology decision is connected to real commercial and customer outcomes.

We're looking for people who act as trusted advisors to the business, take end-to-end accountability for outcomes, and can balance pace with long-term architectural integrity. Innovation here means practical, scalable solutions, not ideas that stay on whiteboards.

Halfords operates a hybrid working policy – this position will be based 3 days per week at our support centre in Redditch, West Midlands.

About the role

As a Data Scientist, you'll play a pivotal role in embedding data-driven thinking across the business, delivering high-impact models that shape pricing, customer experience, and operational performance. Joining a small but ambitious team, you'll lead end-to-end project delivery from identifying high-value opportunities and shaping hypotheses to building robust models and deploying them into production via Azure Databricks. You're confident owning the full lifecycle, exploring large datasets, applying advanced modelling techniques in Python and PySpark, and clearly communicating insights to stakeholders across multiple business functions. With solid experience in SQL, Databricks, and Power BI, you understand how to turn models into decisions and bring people with you on the journey.

For you, this is an opportunity to help shape the future of data science within a major UK retailer. With a framework still in its early stages, you'll be influential in defining how data science is adopted across the business. Whether it's customer segmentation, price elasticity, or next-best-action engines, you'll get stuck into a broad and varied portfolio and play a key role in embedding intelligence into the heart of our digital and customer-facing strategies.

Key responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end delivery of data science solutions, from use case identification and data acquisition through to model build, production deployment, and ongoing iteration
• Identify opportunities to apply data science across different business functions, engaging stakeholders proactively to build understanding of what's possible and drive adoption of solutions
• Design and build predictive models and analytical solutions across use cases including pricing, customer segmentation, and loyalty programme analytics
• Prepare, shape, and manipulate datasets using Python, SQL, PySpark, and Databricks, ensuring inputs are fit for purpose and outputs are explainable to non-technical stakeholders
• Translate model outputs into clear, practical recommendations, communicating uncertainty and limitations honestly and tailoring findings for different audiences
• Identify privacy and ethics considerations early and embed responsible practice into solution design and delivery
• Share methods, learnings, and best practice across the team, contributing to the continued development of data science capability at Halfords
  
  

About you

• Strong technical foundation in Python, SQL, PySpark, and Databricks within an Azure stack environment, alongside solid Power BI skills
• Masters level or equivalent qualification in mathematics, statistics, or a related quantitative discipline, with demonstrable ability to apply rigorous statistical techniques to real business problems
• Proven experience delivering data science solutions end to end within a business environment, with a genuine appreciation for how different commercial functions operate and interact
• Background in pricing, customer segmentation, or loyalty analytics is a strong advantage, as is experience from retail, travel, events, or similar consumer-facing sectors
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to identify opportunities, engage business functions, and drive adoption of what you've built
• Able to work effectively in a small team with a broad remit, managing multiple priorities and moving between strategic thinking and hands-on delivery
• Curious, self-directed, and motivated by the opportunity to shape something from an early stage rather than slot into an established framework
  
  

Reward & benefits

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, car allowance,   annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.
• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations.
• We offer hybrid working with a blend of working in our Support Centre and from home. 
• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.
• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords.

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.

Note: Halfords operates a hybrid working policy – this position will be based 3 days per week at our support centre in Redditch, West Midlands.